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User blog:Unknown Primarch/Sega acquires Relic Entertainment
This news is already a few days old and most people keeping an eye of things are probably up to date with the recent events, but I suppose a site like the Dawn of War Wiki should cover this as well. As you may know, THQ – the owner of Relic Entertainment, the developer of the Dawn of War series – filed for a "Chapter 11" bankruptcy in December, arising some concern for the future of Relic franchises such as Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Company of Heroes and of course Homeworld. In a rather positive turn of events, it was announced this week that Sega, a major video game publisher that recently acquired the license for The Creative Assembly (one of their studios, responsible for the Total War series of RTS games) to develop a Warhammer Fantasy video game, has now acquired Relic Entertainment for $26.6 million, beating a surprising bid of $26.3 million from ZeniMax Media (the owner of Bethesda Game Studios). This turn certainly seems an extremely positive outcome for fans of Relic games, although the future of the 40K franchises is still somewhat in the air. Company of Heroes 2 is almost done and will be published under Sega, but there is no official announcement on Sega actually acquiring the 40K lineup. A scanned document has surfaced that suggests Sega acquiring at least some 40K and Dawn of War related trademarks and domains, but fails to list all we'd like to see. It seems to list the following: Trademarks: * Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine * Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team * Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 - Chaos Rising * Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 2 Domains: * 40K-ONLINE.COM * 40K-ONLINE.NET * 40KDM.COM * 40KDM.NET * 40KDMO.COM * 40KDMO.NET * 40KSPACEMARINE.COM * 40KSPACEMARINES.COM * DAWNOFWAR.ORG * DAWNOFWAR2.COM * DAWNOFWAR3.COM * DAWNOFWARGAME.COM * SPACEMARINE.COM * SPACEMARINEGAME.COM * SPACEMARINESGAME.COM * WARHAMMER40000DARKMILLENNIUM.COM * WARHAMMER40000DARKMILLENNIUMONLINE.COM * WARHAMMER40000DARKMILLENNIUMONLINE.NET * WARHAMMER40KDARKMILLENNIUM.COM * WARHAMMER40KDARKMILLENNIUM.NET * WARHAMMER40KDARKMILLENNIUMONLINE.COM * WARHAMMER40KDARKMILLENNIUMONLINE.NET * WARHAMMER40KDMO.COM * WARHAMMER40KDMO.NET * WH40KDARKMILLENNIUM.COM * WH40KDARKMILLENNIUM.NET * WH40KDM.COM * WH40KDM.NET * WH40KDMO.COM * WH40KDMO.NET The scanned purchase agreement also includes an item that basically says Games Workshop can veto the transfer of all trademarks and copyrights licensed from them – which means everything related to Warhammer 40,000 in any way. But would Sega have bought Relic only for Company of Heroes, without having an eye on the 40K license? They just acquired the Warhammer Fantasy license, after all, so they seem to get along just fine with Games Workshop – and then they go and buy the definitive 40K video game developer. I assume it can just be that Games Workshop has not yet officially approved the assignment of 40K from THQ to Sega, and this is why there has been no official comment on the matter either. Games Workshop seems to have no problem licensing an IP to Sega, and Relic has a great track record of developing quality 40K titles. I remain optimistic for a Dawn of War III now, much more than before the THQ bankruptcy. Stuff to read * THQ Dissolution - Relic Related Info Summary (RelicNews) * Sega and Relic and the whereabouts of the Warhammer 40,000 IP (Eurogamer) * THQ auction results (Kotaku) * Notice of SEGA’s Acquisition of Relic Entertainment and Some IPs Owned by THQ Inc. (Sega) * Asset Purchase Agreement between Sega and THQ (PDF) Category:Blog posts Category:News